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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

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Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.

Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
  • "trunk box" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "your country for safe keeping" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
  • "million us dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
• This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
  

Fraud email example:

From: "Mrs.Sharmila Hasan" <samishan@excite.com> (may be fake)
Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2007 18:49:12 +0800
Subject: I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE

Dear Sir/Madam,

I duly apologize for infringing on your privacy, if this contact is not acceptable to you as I make this proposals a person of integrity.After due deliberation with my children, we decided to contact you for your needed assistance to secure a family treasure. First, let me start by introducing myself, I am Mrs. sharmila Hasan, a mother of three children. My husband was a social worker who worked in the united nations outpost in Southern Lebanon but he was killed in the cross fire between the Israeli and Hezebollah war that ended few months ago.

You must have heard over the media reports and on the Internet the War against my country Lebanon. Many innocent civilians are dead and thousands are injured while millions are homeless as they bombarded our country. Most of our infrastructures are now in shambles as a result of their deadly bombardment of Lebanon. Even though the cease fire is now imposed between the Israeli and Hezbollah but the situation is still fragile.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/30/mideast.main/index.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5217176.stm

I can give you the general overview of the situation. On the 26th day of July, Israeli war planes bombed the United Nations outpost and killed four United nations workers and reduced the whole observer outpost to rumbles. As a social worker,my husband was among the few that were sent to the crumbled out posts to assist in the rescue operations. As the rescue was going on,he with a colleague, a fellow worker discovered a trunk box in the heaps of the debris and according to him, when they opened it, 'wow!' it contains neatly packed bundles of united states dollars in cash. As they made a rough and hasty counting of the money, they came up with the figure $9.5million US dollars.

To cut the whole story short,my husband and his colleague took the trunk box that contained the funds and hide it in one of the refugees camp here in Lebanon but they later they shipped it to our neighbouring country Cyprus and deposited it with a local security company and it is still in their vaults till date. It is sad to say that my husband and his colleagues did not live to enjoy the fruit of their fortune because, their truck was caught in a cross fire while on duty just few days before the cease fire agreement was reached between the waring factions.May their souls rest in peace.

The reason why I am contacting you is for you to assist me to invest this huge money in your country because I still posses the documents regarding the funds deposit which was made in my husbands name. I also have the picture of the cash money as he took the picture before they shipped the funds and got it deposited in Cyprus, our neighbouring country.

As I am not a business women and again the situation in our country is hell and it is not safe to keep or invest the fund in a war turn zone like Lebanon, your assistance is needed to clear this fund out of the Security for subsequent investment.
If you are interested to work with me, we can set up a business partnership with you in your country and it is my wish to invest in property and real estate investment. I will compensate you for your role in this venture and if you are interested, I will inform you my arrangements on how I intend to send the money to you in your country for safe keeping and investment.

For your assistance, my family will offer you 20% of the total sum. If you are interested please reply me so that we can plan on how to proceed but if you are not interested feel free to decline this offer as it is not mandatory.

Thanks and regards,

Sharmila

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam